Lies Menu’s Tell

There is nothing I hate more than reading a menu that lists all the ingredients in a dish and when it arrives at my table not recognizing what I had read about.  Or worse yet my mistakenly thinking that one item listed in a description plays a larger role than is actually the case.  The problem is that your mouth and mind have already prepared themselves for that particular flavor. When it turns out to be a bit player in a larger show it makes little impact on the outcome of the dish, but a big influence about how I feel about the restaurant’s honesty

I went to a lunch where a salad was described as having fresh fruit and when it was placed in front of me the “fresh fruit” was actually one raspberry.  True it was a fresh raspberry, but one hardly constitutes a fresh fruit billing.  Here is a hint to menu writers everywhere, if you don’t know what the fruit is going to be at the time of printing the menu and you are only planning on putting a whisper of an item on a dish, just don’t mention it in the description.

The real thing to do is frankly describe the fare you are serving.  You may not sell as much, but you don’t piss anyone off by false advertising.  Russ came home yesterday after visiting a coffee shop where he ordered an Americano.  For those of you who don’t know what that is it is espresso with just enough hot water to make it the strength of regular brewed coffee.  He said that when the server handed it to him it was so watered down that he could have read the newspaper through it if it were printed on the bottom of the cup.

The server realized it was a little weak, but rather than admitting it was made incorrectly she said that if he wanted it darker she could sell him another shot of espresso.  What their menu should have read was “Americano” – a really weak coffee drink, so if you wanted it stronger you would know to order a double shot or ask them to cut the water in half to start.

A menu’s job is to describe what’s offered and entice you to want to eat it.  It is a restaurant’s job to deliver what they promise and make you want to come back and patronage them again.  It is a balancing act between a promise and delivery.  You don’t want to under describe something, but it is a lot better to over deliver.  Customers are never unhappy about being pleasantly surprised, but if a server has to back peddle and say, “Yes, there is fresh fruit in that salad,” as they pull out a magnifying glass to point out the one raspberry they are in trouble.